RELIGIOUS IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Religious is one of the most important determinants of culture.

Religion is…

•Shared beliefs and rituals concerned with the realm of the sacred.

•Ethical Systems:  Moral principles or values used to guide and shape behavior.

•Shapes attitudes toward work and entrepreneurship and can affect the cost of doing business.

The sociological meaning of Religion

Sociologists concluded that every religion separates the sacred from the profane. The particular things considered sacred vary from culture to culture.

The fuctions of religion…

Religion gives formal approval to existing social arrangements.

Legitimate, justify, or give official approval to

•    Encourages a sense of unity
•    Provides a sense of understanding
•   Promotes a sense of belonging

RELIGIUS IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Conflict theory and Religion

 Karl Marx believed that once people have created a unified system of sacred beliefs and practices, they act as if it were something beyond their control. Religion words against social change.

·         Max Weber suggested the religion sometimes encourages social change.-“Spirit” of capitalism-Protestant work ethic

CHRISTIANITY	ISLAM	HINDUISM	BUDISM	CONFUCIANISM
Max Weber suggested that the Protestant work ethic and its focus on hard work, wealth creation, and frugality was the driving force of capitalism. Max Weber:  “If one works hard, he or she will succeed”. (Weber, 1958)	Under Islam, people do not own property, but only act as stewards for God and thus must take care of that which they have been entrusted with. Businesses that are perceived to be making a profit through the exploitation of others, by deception, or by breaking contractual obligations are unwelcome	Practiced primarily on the Indian sub-continent, focuses on the importance of achieving spiritual growth and development, which may require material and physical self-denial Hindu asceticism is said to undermine entrepreneurial activity.	Also seen as a religion whose focus on spiritual achievement undermines wealth creation. “Samara” The eternal cycle of birth, suffering, death and rebirth (Fang 1999).	Interest of collectivity is higher than that of individual (Fang 1999). Confucius taught that salvation is attained through right action based on three key teachings: ▫Loyalty to one’s superiors ▫Reciprocal obligations of superiors to subordinates(guanxi) ▫Honesty These teachings may lower the cost of doing business in Confucian societies

QUESTION

What is the dominant religion in Colombia? What are the religious implications for doing business here?.

The dominant religion in Colombia is Catholicism, but normally people are not too much strict with religion in business. Basically the most implication that it has in doing business are the basic values or ethic believes that Catholics have, like confidence, equity, transparence and goodness in general. Maybe other aspect is that in the country people do not used to work on Sundays because it suppose to be the day of going to the church and also we have the holly week when people do not work, so if someone comes with a different idea it would affect in some aspect not to have the time at job expected. Catholic people tend to be open to other cultures in terms of business relation but it is necessary to prepare the Colombian negotiators in order to know much more about other religions to have a better sense of understanding while making business.

REFERENCES

·         Fang, T (1999) Chinese Business Negotiating Style, London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

·         Hill, C. (2007) International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace. 7ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

·         Weber, M. (1958) the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, New York: Scribner's Press.

ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY

Team: “A group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable”

Four aspects of group behavior…

1.      Norms of Behavior

2.      Group Cohesion

3.      Social Loafing

4.      Loss of Individuality

Tuckman’s five-stage model of group development…

Styles of group member contribution

Member can contribute in different ways - this drives intellectual discuss and promotes problem resolution:

·          Contributor - data driven, supplies information

·          Collaborator - big picture, focuses team on mission

·          Communicator - listens, facilitates and promotes collective effort

·          Challenger - devil’s advocate, questions mission, purpose, ethics

Diversity is…

•” The variation of social and cultural identities among people existing together in a defined employment or market setting” (Cox 2001)

• “Groups made up of diverse personnel do a better job of analyzing and attacking problems” (ibid).

When diversity is seen as… (Cox 2001)

Value-added activity	Potential performance barrier
·         Problem solving ·         Creativity & innovation ·         Organizational flexibility ·         Human talent ·         Marketing strategies	·         Less effective communication ·         Conflict ·         Lower level of social attraction ·         Lower level of commitment to ·         the group

Diversity management is…

“A way of creating an environment that will enable all people to use full potential to

accomplish the mission"

Misunderstandings based upon diversity…

•        Communication style

•        Nonverbal communication

•        Trust

•        Accents

•        Regional jargon

•        Stereotypes

•        Lack of common experiences

•        Values and beliefs

Diversity as organizational change…

•        Leadership commitment

•        Management commitment (both top-down and bottom-up commitment)

•        Fundamental changes in the organizational culture (Cox 2001; Ely and Thomas, 2001)

QUESTION

Since diversity is a source of competitive advantage, what could be the recruitment strategies to effectively target to diverse groups? What would be the consequences of ignoring diversity?

In order to achieve the presence of diverse groups that would be the key to develop competitive advantage, the company has to develop an including environment in the work place. In this sense, the managers have to be open to the differences presented among workers and show from the top that diversity has many tools to contribute to the company in a big sense. When managers know the different capabilities and characteristic of each employee, they can assemble them in order to make complemented teams and reach the most effectively diverse groups that create a high competitive advantage to the company. In contrast, the consequences of ignoring diversity into a company would be lack of knowledge that is clearly found in the different backgrounds of each person, and finally the company would end isolated, taking into account the diversification process that the globalization brings.

REFERENCES

•        Ely, R. and Thomas, D. (2001) “Cultural Diversity at Work: The Effects of Diversity Perspectives on Work Group Processes and Outcomes,” Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 2, 2001, pp. 229–273.

•        Jamieson, D. and O’Mara, J. (1991) Managing workforce 2000: Gaining the diversity advantage.

•        kellyconsultants.biz

•        Slater, Stanley, F., Weigand, Robert A., Zweilein, Thomas J. (2008) ¨The business case for commitment to diversity¨.

•        Business Horizons 51: 201-209.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

Basic Concepts…

·         Communication - the evoking of a shared or common meaning in another person

·         Interpersonal communication – communication between two or more people in an organization

·         Communicator - the person originating the message

·         Receiver - the person receiving a message

·         Perceptual screen - a window through which we interact with people that influences the quality, accuracy, and clarity of the communication

·         Language - the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used & understood by a group of people

·         Data - uninterpreted and unanalyzed facts

·         Information - data that have been interpreted, analyzed, & and have meaning to some user

·         Richness - the ability of a medium or channel to elicit or evoke meaning in the receiver

Reflexive Listening…

Is the skill of listening carefully to another person and repeating back to the speaker the heard message to correct any inaccuracies or misunderstandings.

One-way vs. Two-way Communications

One-way communication	Two-way communication
Communication in which a person sends a message to another person and no questions, feedback, or interaction follow: ·         Good for giving simple directions ·         Fast but often less accurate than 2-way communication	A form of communication in which the communicator & receiver interact. ·         Good for problem solving.

Nonverbal Communication

All elements of communication that do not involve words Four basic types:

·          Proxemics - an individual’s perception & use of space

·          Kinesics - study of body movements, including posture

·          Facial & eye behavior - movements that add cues for the receiver

·          Paralanguage - variations in speech, such as pitch, loudness, tempo, tone, duration, laughing, & crying

Barriers to Communication…

•        Physical separation

•        Status differences

•        Gender differences

•        Cultural diversity

•        Language

Virtual Team Culture…

“Information technology is providing the infrastructure necessary to support the development of new organization forms” (Ebrahim et al., 2009).

“Virtual teams represent one such organizational form, one that could revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with unprecedented level of flexibility and responsiveness” (Powell et al., 2004).

Dimensions of effective virtual team leadership:

Communication (the leader provides continuous feedback, engages in regular and prompt communication, and clarifies tasks) (Shachaf and Hara 2005)

Understanding (the leader is sensitive to schedules of members , appreciates their opinions and suggestions , cares about member’s problems, gets to know them, and expresses a personal interest in them) (ibid)

Role clarity (the leader clearly defines responsibilities of all members, exercises authority, and mentors virtual team members) (ibid)

Leadership attitude (the leader is assertive yet not too “bossy,” caring, relates to members at their own levels, and maintains a consistent attitude over the life of the project) (ibid)

Well-planned monitoring mechanisms (the leader should be able to detect and resolve emerging problems that are not immediately apparent as a result of the lack of direct managerial oversight of work undertaken in remote areas) (Kuruppuarachchi 2009)

QUESTION

According to Kuruppuarachchi (2009), what benefits and problems arise as a consequence of the creation of virtual team? Identify five each. Based on this, explain how to make the transition from a more traditional team structure to the more distributed team structure?

The creation of virtual and the application of them teams in many different areas have shown different benefits and also drawbacks of this kind of technological teams. As drawbacks, the presence of virtual teams can cause ineffective communication, loss of vision in terms of unknowing the goals and objectives, difficult quality control, lack of leisure time for team members because tend to be overloaded with work, lack of permanent records and added pressure due to overemphasis on speed. However, a carefully design and well implemented virtual team can offers as benefits that, increase productivity, competitive advantage and customer service, reduce costs, improve business process, eliminate the time-consuming travel to a central office and expand labor force.

To make the transition from traditional to more distributed team structure, it is important to recognize than this dispersion of the members in different locations make the virtual team more dynamic, giving each member a different but important functional role. This transition also gives to the virtual team a diversified group of members, with different foreign people than can contribute all their background to the tasks developed. All this benefits are reached making this transition that has to based on the trust, judgment and self-motivation of talented people working in the project.

REFERENCES

·         Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Organizational culture. In Organisational Behavour: Science, the real world and you.

·         Powell, A ., G. Piccoli and B. Ives (2004) Virtual teams : a review of current literature and directions for future research. The Data base for Advances in Information Systems , 35: 6-36.

·         Rosen, B., S. Furst and R. Blackburn (2007) Overcoming Barriers t o Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Teams. Organizational Dynamics, 36: 259-273.

·         Shachaf, P. and N. Hara (2005) Team Effectiveness in Virtual Environments : An Ecological Approach. INFERRIS, P.A.G., S., (Ed.) Teaching and Learning with Virtual Teams. Idea Group Publishing.

·         Kuruppuarachchi, P. R. (2009). Virtual team concepts in projects: A case study Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218750033?accountid=45662